A vegan animal rights advocate says she is "over the moon" following the success of a campaign to scrap this year's annual Woodditton Sheep Run.

Samantha Francis, 42, from St Ives, started a petition calling on Woodditton Parish Council to bring a halt to the "unnecessary and cruel" event which sees dozens of sheep being chased round a 70m grass track with stuffed teddy bear 'jockeys' on their backs.

Sharing her petition with animal rights groups on Facebook last Sunday (June 30) she successfully rammed her point home, winning the support of nearly 40,000 people in three days and forcing the parish to call time on the historic event.

Following the victory she told the News she was "absolutely thrilled" with the result and vowed to continue to be a voice for voiceless animals everywhere.

She said: "These sheep are quiet, timid creatures. They are prey animals so they will only run when they are frightened.

"You don’t see sheep running about in the wild. You don’t see a lot of running sheep so I don’t think they like running that much or you would see them do it.

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"Granted no one gets physically hurt, or do they? These sheep are known to fall over - I don’t think they are able to right themselves up again and they need help to get back on their feet. And it must be really traumatic for them its an unnatural setting...

"There isn’t a lot of understanding. I know it has been happening in Scotland for centuries - they used to use toddlers a long time ago until a young lad fell off and broke his neck and now they use teddy bears or little models. It’s absolutely undignified - they are tying teddy bears to these sheep and making them run along a race track for no reason.

Samantha said she first found out about the church run event - which was due to take place on July 9 - last Saturday. It was a "double blow" for her as an animal rights champion and Christian.

Before the event was cancelled she was planning on presenting the petition to the vicar of St Mary's Church following a service this Sunday (July 2).

She said: " Stopping cruelty to animals should be bumped up the priority list for churches and I don’t think they take it seriously enough.

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"Jesus compared himself to sheep quite often, he called himself the 'Lamb of God', he called himself the Good Shepherd. I think he’d be mortified if he saw what was happening.

"There are plenty of alternatives: they could get adults or even children to dress up as sheep and and run along the road, that would be much more fun surely?"

Last year there were calls for the event to be cancelled but this is the first time the rural parish has bowed to pressure.

In a statement a parish council spokesman said it was "conscious of the need to treat animals with care", noting that at previous fetes "the races were organised and managed superbly and without incident by the professional shepherds".

He added: "The sheep used were mature ewes, not in lamb, and did not carry 'jockeys' of course. The races were straight, with proper barriers and no hazards for the sheep.